A telephone concept known as "One Number" service that allows a person to be reached at any time, anywhere, by a single number to provide personal mobility is becoming quite popular. One method of providing such a one number telephone service is to classify telephone calls as residential, business, or cellular.
In conventional wireless networks, one number service is typically offered by either using specialized infrastructure equipment at a subscriber location or by requiring a subscriber to perform some form of manual intervention. The specialized infrastructure equipment approach usually provides a personal base station at the subscriber's home and a wireless private branch exchange at the office. However, the specialized infrastructure equipment adds extra cost and complexity to the system. In addition, to support such a service, this system requires changes to the air interface used by the wireless network, forcing subscribers to purchase new subscriber mobile units.
Another conventional system provides a one number service by requiring manual actions by subscribers. In this system, a subscriber that transitions from a mobile environment, such as in an automobile, to a residential location informs the system of the subscriber's change in location by taking a manual action, such as by pressing certain keys on the mobile unit in a fashion similar to conventional call forwarding. The system then routes calls to the subscriber's residence. However, relaying on a subscriber's manual actions is inconvenient for many users and may cause incorrect billing, such as when a subscriber forgets to take the appropriate action.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus to provide one number service without requiring manual intervention by the subscriber and reducing the amount of specialized infrastructure equipment used to provide the service.